Fates of Single Mom and Ex-Con Converge in Southern Noir “Desperation Road” https://ift.tt/CkuyiNb
Redemption triumphs over crooked cops, grudges, and broken hearts in Desperation Road, the film adaptation of Michael Farris Smith’s novel of the same name that follows Maben (Willa Fitzgerald) and Russell (Garrett Hedlund), two characters whose fates seem “tied together by some invisible rope.”
Maben Jones is a single mother whose luck ran out long before she found herself naked on a deserted road holding a weapon that could send her to prison. The story opens with her and her young daughter, Annalee (Pyper Braun), walking to McComb, Mississippi, where Maben grew up and experienced a harrowing loss years before.
They arrive with just enough money for a night in a hotel adjacent to a truck stop, which leads Maben to her crisis. She sees other women selling themselves to truckers and makes her own attempt at earning some much-needed cash. Although she abandons the attempt, a police officer on patrol catches her walking away from a truck and takes advantage of her vulnerability, forcing her into his car and taking her to an abandoned area where he rapes her and then invites some friends to join in.
When we meet Russell Gaines, he’s returning to McComb after serving time in the Mississippi State Penitentiary for drunkenly plowing his truck into a parked car, killing a boy whose older brothers don’t see Russell as having settled his debt. The brothers – Larry (Ryan Hurst) and Walt (Michael Aaron Milligan) – are waiting for Russell when his bus arrives. They beat him to welcome him home, then haunt him as he attempts to settle into a new life.
I found it frustrating how long it took Maben and Russell to cross paths. It was inevitable that their stories would intersect, given the narrative set-up (and movie previews), but instead of creating suspense, it felt like 50 minutes of two entirely compelling but different stories. I felt myself saying, both while reading the book and while watching the film, “Just get there already.” Despite this, Smith, who also wrote the screenplay, develops a striking emotional resonance in these characters that had me rooting for both Maben and Russell, even though success for one seemed to mean devastation for the other.
Book or movie? This is the question that always surfaces, and in an uncommon way, I felt drawn to each somewhat equally, although for different reasons. Smith writes in an evocative way that plucks me out of the physical world and drops me into the lines of his prose. Case in point: “In the southern Mississippi swamp you can watch the world awaken as the pale yellow sun edges itself between the trees and moss and widewinged cranes.”
The film followed the plot of the novel, diverging in only a few places. Most notably, Russell serves less prison time in the film, which creates an even more striking connection between him and Maben, which Russell recognizes shortly after learning her name. Just as the novel dives deeply into the marrow of the characters, Smith made space in the script for the story to unfold. The dialogue is crisp and understated, allowing the actors to evoke emotion that built tension and drew me in. The exception to this was Mel Gibson, who played Russell’s father, Mitchell. There were several lines that should have been notable and striking, but, in delivery, fell flat and felt trite, which was disappointing and did the writing a grave injustice.
Still, Mitchell’s fatherly love and devotion to Russell’s well-being and restoration was a brilliant juxtaposition to Larry, whose life as a violent drunk, estranged from his son and ex-wife, highlighted the dynamic impacts of unchecked loss, grief, and revenge, his washed-up life beached by the death of his youngest brother. While Larry spews bile on his son’s life, Mitchell provides Russell with salve, eventually facilitating vindication for the innocent – but not before Larry’s campaign for revenge devastates exactly that which he aimed to avenge.
Larry also serves as the outward manifestation of Russell’s internal struggle. Throughout the story, Russell grapples with the concept of forgiveness, not just for himself but for mankind, and the lengths he goes for Maben and Annalee become evidence of Russell’s physical component of atonement and are a direct result of the forgiveness his father displays.
Dark and brooding, and at times violent, Desperation Road is a thrilling and dramatic unfolding of events portrayed in an emotionally gripping way. It’s a complex illustration of the contradictions that exist in life – how one can lose something by holding onto it too tightly, how giving up might garner more results than immense effort, and how sometimes the only way to keep something is to give it away. It’s one of those films that will resonate long after the final scene.
FILM Desperation Road
Directed by Nadine Crocker
Written by Michael Farris Smith
Starring Willa Fitzgerald, Mel Gibson, and Garrett Hedlund
Available to stream on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and YouTube
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